There are a variety of conditions that require injection of fluids into, or withdrawal of fluids from, a patient's circulatory system. It is common to use an implanted catheter to repeatedly access the patient's vascular system. A flexible guidewire placed in the vascular system may be used to facilitate placement of the catheter, but its use would prevent the physician from capping the proximal end of the catheter to prevent fluid from exiting the catheter or air from entering the vascular system through the catheter during placement. After catheter placement, it is common to attach a valve cap or other terminating device to the proximal end of the catheter to prevent fluid from exiting the catheter or air from entering the vascular system through the catheter. However, in case of accidental separation of the valve cap from the catheter, the distal end of the catheter would then be exposed to the environment outside the body of the patient. The exposed catheter lumen may increase the patient's risk of blood loss, air embolism, or infection.
The use of a cap or adapter to seal the proximal end of a catheter may increase the risk of trapping air pockets within the lumen of the catheter, resulting in an air embolism. Furthermore, during a treatment process requiring infusion of multiple fluids through the implanted catheter, the physician may inadvertently leave the lumens unprotected between procedures, and expose one or more of the lumens to possible contaminations. Thus, an improved catheter access interface may allow easy access to the catheter lumen and at the same time provide better protection against contamination and infection. In addition, an improved catheter access interface may also be configured for utilization as a needle-less access interface for an implanted catheter.
Therefore, a catheter including a self-sealing proximal lumen opening and a corresponding connector for accessing the catheter lumen may be desirable. In particular, a multi-lumen interface with self-sealing mechanisms may be especially desirable in medical procedures where infusion of multiple fluids and/or medications is required.